The machine reel produced in a paper machine is often slit into component webs in a slitter-winder, out of which component webs customer rolls or commercial rolls of desired width are formed. In the commercial rolls formed in the slitter-winder, automatic fixing of the cutting point, i.e. the tail end of the web, to the full roll after winding and the fixing of the initial end of the web to the new roll spool are today ever more important properties in further processing of the paper. This comes from the fact that, at present, ever fewer people work at the slitter-winder, and the roll changes, web threading, and other necessary operations require such a high proportion of the working time of said people that there is hardly time for manual fixing of the final ends/initial ends of the rolls by means of tape or equivalent. Moreover, rolls whose final ends have not been fixed produce difficulties on the conveyors. Likewise, it is a problem that a roll whose final end has not been fixed has time to become loose before packaging.
With respect to the prior art, reference is made to the FI Patent 91,054, in which a method and a device are described for automatic cutting and winding of a product web. In said paper, a solution is also suggested for fixing the end of the web, in which solution the web is weakened and strips of adhesive material are provided at the forward side and at the rear side of the weakening area. However, one problem in this prior-art solution, in particular with thicker paper grades, is ply separation of the paper, i.e. the paper is separated from the roll or spool in spite of the adhesive fixing. Ply separation of paper means that, while the paper is fixed by gluing onto the spool from one side, rigid paper and, especially, board grades tend to straighten themselves to their linear form present on the machine reel and are split starting from the end of the web, in which case the starting of winding can fail completely or a fold is formed on the bottom of the roll. It can also be difficult to find a correct degree of weakening of the web when paper grades of different strengths are run.